Collection Highlight E280159: “Devil Chaser”
01/05/2018
By Daniel Kellam
Provocatively titled “Devil Chaser”, this musical object is also indexed as a ‘bull-roarer’ in our catalog information. This long, slightly curved wooden rod was swung with a circular motion fast enough that it would emit a loud, low, vibrating noise. While we cannot say for sure why this specific object is given the name “Devil Chaser”, bull-roarers have been used in communities around the world since Paleolithic times for both practical purposes such as long-distance communication and ritualistic purposes such as healing. Among the Inupiaq peoples of Alaska bull-roarers are also referred to as ‘wolf-scarers’, which gives us some insight into how they were used in that community. If you take a closer look at the catalog information, you’ll see this “Devil Chaser” has a small face carved into the end of the handle. It was collected near the Bering Sea in Alaska by R. D. Moore and accessioned on October 19th, 1913.
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